


Gardenfield

by DanTanner20



Category: Original Work, The Garden Party - Katherine Mansfield
Genre: Capitalism, Christianity, Drama & Romance, Edwardian Period, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Family Drama, Family Feels, New Zealand, Period Typical Attitudes, Religious Content, Socialism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:02:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28608735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanTanner20/pseuds/DanTanner20
Summary: A tale based on the famous short story The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield. What if Laura stayed at the Scotts' home for a longer time? How would things change for her?
Relationships: Laura Sheridan/Original Male Character





	Gardenfield

_ April 19, 1910 _

_ Wellington, New Zealand _

Few had expected Laura Sheridan, eldest daughter of the business tycoon Mister Sheridan, to be walking unescorted in the streets of Wellington. The nervous young woman walked downhill upon Sheridan Drive, her limbs and body felt the jitters. With her long, pale hands, she held the straw-woven basket to her bosom. She looked up at the orange-pink sky with the sunset casting its dying rays of light on the earth below.

“God give me strength,” Laura whispered, her hazel brown eyes looking up to the heavens.

The winds continued to increase in intensity as she approached ever closer to the coastal slums. Laura approached Tinakori Road, where pedestrians and the occasional Rolls Royce or Land Rover drove by. After looking both ways, she crossed the road, looking downward to avoid the occasional gazes of the passerby. She tilted her black hat down over her forehead, hoping that her face would be less conspicuous.

Laura reached the slums, and she saw a small crowd of people in the distance outside of a home. Quickening her pace, Laura passed women in evening dresses with shawls and men in hats, all wearing dark colors of gray and black. Her brighter attire seemed out of place, along with herself carrying her basket. A slight feeling of shame rushed through her, as she felt her cheeks warm with an embarrassed blush. The wary looks from the passerby did not help. By the time she had reached what seemed to be the Scott’s house, Laura began to wonder why she had even pushed herself to such action.

The small group of people noticed her and parted in two. They looked at her with raised eyebrows and frowns. A pair of old ladies whispered to each other remarks about what a young wealthy woman was doing in their area. The comments stung, but Laura steeled her resolve, knowing that this was for a good purpose. She paid no heed to the whispers and the pointing fingers. She held her head up, and some of the people widened their eyes in recognition.

“Miss Laura Sheridan! Erm… good evening.” a woman dressed in a gray frock said.

“Good evening to you too,” Laura said, giving a nervous chuckle.

“I presume that you are here to give a gift.”

Laura tossed the yellow hat ribbon over her shoulders. “Certainly… May I ask, is this Miss Scott’s house?”

“It is, Miss Sheridan.”

Before Laura could utter another word, the front door to the Scott home opened. A taller woman, standing a head taller than her, stepped out. Her stormy gray eyes seemed dimmer than the sky, and her black hair was loose. She gave Laura an intense stare, as if looking into the core of her being. She felt goosebumps rise on her back.

“Walk in please, lass,” the woman said.

Laura took a deep breath before following the woman inside. She went through the main hall and found herself in a dingy kitchen. The floors were covered with a multi-colored patchwork of carpeting, all having smudges of dirt here and there. The grey-eyed woman, clad in a dull-colored black and grey dress, stopped walking for a moment. She gave a fond look at a photograph framed in wood, hanging on the wall beside the stove. Laura soon realized that it was the family picture of the Scotts.

“Miss Scott, I am so sorry-”

The woman held up her hand, silencing Laura mid-sentence, and the woman sniffled. “J-just call me… Miss Amelia.”

The woman turned to face Laura with her teary gray eyes, yet she was  _ smiling _ ! Laura wondered how Amelia could be smiling when such a horrid tragedy had happened. Mister Jason Weston Scott, a truck driver, had died from a broken skull and snapped neck. His children and wife were now left behind to live life without his company and love. A husband and father had been lost.

With few doubts, Laura had faith in God and an afterlife as well. Still, she could just be curious about where Mister Scott’s kind soul had gone. She also felt curious about death. What was it  _ like _ ? On the other hand, she asked herself in her mind, what was  _ life _ ? Her mind was buzzing with a swarm of questions and thoughts.

“I- I’ll take you to see my sister, Em. She is the mother of my adolescent nephew and now-married niece… she would appreciate your gift too,” the woman added, widening her smile.

Laura felt her eyes water with unshed tears. “Of course, Miss Amelia,” she said, her tone wobbling.

In the small living room were two wooden chairs facing a fireplace, and another woman sat in one of them. Em, the other woman, looked back from her chair with a puffy, round face. Her eyes were swollen, puffy, teary, and reddened, looking like a hideous mockery of their usual pristine white and gray. Her forehead was wrinkled with lines of confusion. She could not understand how a Sheridan of all people in Zealand would come for the death of her beloved husband!

“Em! Miss Laura Sheridan herself came here, with food!” Amelia declared, mustering a smile.

“All right, dear sister, I’ll thank the young lady,” Em said, then bending her closed lips into a smile.

Em got off the chair with slow, sluggish movements, as if every step was a burden. Her grief was immense, but she dared not to show it. She held out her hands to receive the basket. Laura, with shaking hands, gave it.

Em set down the basket on her chair. “Now, Miss Laura Sheridan, I’m very much touched by your kind deed. Bringing the food from your party here was a good thing to do for us.”

“You are welcome, Miss Scott- Miss Em, my pardon,” Laura said, clasping her trembling hands together.

“Do not worry, dear. Allow me to show you my dear husband’s body, God rest his soul.”

Laura looked at the ground, shifting her feet awkwardly on the carpeted floor. She considered refusing for a moment, but something stopped her. It would be rude and insensitive to dare do such a thing! She had already gone too far to relent. Laura nodded despite her worries about what her mother would think.

Laura wiped her eyes on the long sleeves of her dress before she followed Em into the first bedroom. She saw the body of a young man draped in a tan colored cloth with the rough texture of a dirty rag. Beside the bed, a boy with the same gray eyes and black hair as his mother knelt in silent prayer, holding his hands together.

“ _ Perhaps he is the eldest Scott family’s son… I can understand, considering that we lost Grandpapa two years ago, _ ” Laura thought, her brown eyes watering again at the thought of missing her dear grandfather.

Em gave Laura a smile, but her grey eyes were dropped with sadness. The middle aged mother had never expected to be a widow at just thirty-eight years of age. Still, she felt some comfort knowing that the soul of her husband was with the Almighty Lord.

Em then walked to the bed along with Laura, who felt a lone tear trace a path down her fair cheeks. She felt sorry for the Scotts, despite not knowing them very much. The only times she had heard of them was from her father talking on the phone about his workers. The workers did a variety of jobs for the shipping company in possession of the Sheridan family:  **Sheridan Cargo Shipping Co** . Unfortunately, Mister Scott had been one of the work casualties, dying in a quick yet brutal manner.

The blonde hair was ruffled, still smeared with miniscule flecks of blood. The pair of eyes were closed, never to open again. What did the concerns of the world, especially driving trucks, garden parties, or the latest dress fashions matter to Mister Scott? Nothing.. Not any longer. Neither a frown marred the handsome face with its angular jaw. The body seemed to wear a content expression, as if saying,  _ I am at peace now, to rest after the longest day… leave me be. _

Laura began to sob. The dam had broken. The tears flowed down her cheeks, and she could taste the salt in them. She felt a hand rest on her shoulder, and she stopped sobbing. It was Em who had done so, holding back tears as well.

“Do not weep, lass. It is part of life.”

“I- I am not grieved, M- Miss Scott.. isn’t- isn’t life-”

“It  _ is _ , miss. It  _ is _ wonderful, so beautiful, like Creation itself. Death is beautiful too, a new beginning.”

Laura sobbed into the embrace of Em Scott, who smiled, telling the young lady reassurances that she would be all right. A half hour later, the tears had finally ceased, and Em gave a tissue to Laura. After blowing her nose, Laura noticed that the boy had finished praying.

“Miss Laura Sheridan! I did not expect  _ your kind _ to be so… generous.”

Laura frowned. Had she said something wrong? “Pardon me?”

“How… how could your family care for anyone of our  _ class _ , you would never understand with all of your  _ bourgeois  _ ways. I look forward to when blood suckers like your kind eat the  _ grass _ ,” he spat, putting emphasis on the last word, and glaring at Laura.

“Peter, be nice to the young lady. Leave our politics out of this,” Em said, pointing at her son and staring him down with a sharp stare.

“If not for your family’s ignorance and oversight, perhaps men much like Father would be still alive…”

Laura gasped. How dare he blame her family! “Well then! Pardon me, I had just gone here to provide your family with well-done food. It was of  _ my volition _ !”

Silence filled the bedroom for a few moments. Only their gentle breaths of life could be heard.

Peter lowered his head. “Oh… I thought that you were simply forced to come here all alone by your mother-”

“Absolutely not!” Laura said, clenching her fists.

Em then talked to her son, reprimanding him for his scathing remarks towards the kind, young lady. Eventually, Peter and Laura began to talk with friendliness, without a cross word or any profane expletive. His heart softened for the youthful brunette upon hearing more of her thoughts about the plight of the working class… he soon wondered if he would see her again…

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU fanfiction on The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield. This will follow most aspects of the established canon for that short story since there will be a few canonical changes. I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> #1: Laura will stay at the Scotts’ house for a longer time for the sake of the plot.
> 
> #2: It is Em Scott herself who shows Laura the corpse of her husband, unlike in the actual story where Em’s sister does so.


End file.
